St John’s graduates 93 nursing students
St John’s College of Nursing and Midwifery in Mzuzu on Saturday graduated 68 nurse and midwife technicians and 25 community midwife assistants with diplomas and certificates respectively.
Airtel Malawi, through the Safe Motherhood Initiative, provided scholarships worth K15 million (US$36 144.6) to the 25 community midwife assistants whereas 33 of the nurse and midwife technicians were under the sponsorship of the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.
Speaking in an interview after the graduation, St John’s principal Lilly Thindwa Wakeda said lack of proper funding for the institution has delayed the graduating students to complete their education on time.
She said in the last academic calendar the school had a deficit of about K23 million (US$55 421.7) in their budget which forced them to close for four weeks.
“Lack of funding affects our activities and it delays students to complete their education on time,” she said.
Principal Secretary for the Ministry of Health Chris Kang’ombe, who accompanied the minister Dr Jean Kalilani at the function, acknowledged that sometimes the ministry fails to fund all its planned activities depending on “the times the economy is going through.”
But he said the challenge is that the ministry is in a dilemma of deciding whether to prioritise healthcare services or trainings.
